Former BP CEO Tony Hayward Now Overseeing Mine Safety in Minnesota

As reported this morning by MinnPost's Don Shelby, "Tony Hayward has been recently hired by a company called Glencore. Don't feel bad if you haven't heard of it. It has been trying for years to be invisible to the naked eye. It was briefly in the news back in the Clinton years when its founder, Marc Rich, violated federal law by trading oil with Iran and went on the FBI's most wanted list. Things cooled off fairly quickly because President Clinton pardoned Rich as Bill was on the way out of the White House door. Rich was, well, rich. He gave money to the Clinton campaign. I'm not saying. I'm just saying."

Hayward's position?

Executive expert in charge of environment and safety.

No, seriously.

It's true.

This is not a joke.

The man at the helm of BP during one of the worst environmental disasters in US has finally "gotten his life back" and will be charged with ensuring the proposed PolyMet copper and nickel mine in Hoyt Lakes, MN doesn't run into the same trouble Hayward's last project did.

Is Hayward up to the task?

Shelby doesn't sound entirely convinced.

He explains that "there are two things you should know about hardrock sulfide mining":

The first thing is that the Environmental Protection Agency says hardrock mining generates more toxic waste than any other sector of the U.S. economy.

The second thing you should know is that the history of this sort of mining shows that when the metals run out, the companies decamp. The real pollution starts after they leave with the winnings, go broke, or sell out.

In a rather large nutshell, says Shelby, "If there is a pollution problem, it will affect the Embarrass, Partridge and St. Louis Rivers and Lake Superior. The others, if they are permitted to operate and then discharge toxic waste, as nearly every other such mining operation has, the pollution will flow into the pristine boundary waters where I just drank unfiltered lake water. The discharge of toxic waste into the BWCA is not just a pollution problem, it will be, for millions of people, the end of the world. That's not a pollution problem."